Tournaments v Cash Games

I thought I'd have a quick break from the "Am I Better Because of Poker" series to write a little about recent and future poker exploits.

2007 has been going extreemly well. January and February were big winning months. In March I didn't play so much but the hourly rate was just as good.

I'm playing almost exclusively cash games on Dusk Till Dawn. I've been playing the occasional Sunday tournament and WSOP qualifier on PokerStars and the occasional GUKPT qualifier on BlueSquare, but so far they've all been money down the drain.

The balance between tournament and cash game play is something I've been needing to address.

I don't keep records of my tournament play, but if I had to estimate then I'd put myself at slightly better than break even, but it's hard to tell - recently I've been running and playing badly in tournaments. I think part of my problem recently has been lack of concentration in them. When I know that I could be making close to $100/hour playing cash games, I tend to treat my $200 tournament buyin somewhat reclessly. But if I could take it seriously then maybe I'd be in with a shot (all be it a long one) at some of the five and six figure final table payouts that these $200-500 events have.

I must have done about $3500 in WSOP and GUKTP satalites this year with nothing to show. That's not necessarily surprising as there's a lot of varience in tournaments, but one mistake on the bubble of a GUKPT sat cost me an almost certain seat and I made one horrible play early on in a $650 WSOP qualifier to get knocked out.

I'm waffling here somewhat. I'd already come to a conclusion before writing this so maybe I should give you that and then explain it. Essentially, what I've decided to do it not to play any online tournaments for the time being. Even if I concentrate and play well my hourly rate wouldn't be as good as from cash games.

As far live tournaments are concerned I'm going to buy directly into those that I want to play. I can't imagine, come June, taking $10,000 out of the kitty to buy directly into the WSOP. But then if I'm not prepared to buyin directly then I shouldn't really be prepared to spend time and money playing satalites either.

My plan for this year is to play a few medium buyin live tournaments and see how they go. I figure taking the occasional shot at a tournament with a buyin of 5-10% of my bankroll is an acceptable thing to do. Maybe next year I'll be at the stage where I can think about playing in the EPT or WSOP.

I'm going to take a shot at the upcoming leg of the GUKPT in Manchester. It's a £1050 buyin, which is about 10% of my current roll. Maybe, one might say, if I'm concerned about my online tournament abilities then investing 10% of my bankroll in a single live tournament is a little unwise. I'd like to think that I'm at least even money in this event and actually I think I play tournaments better live than online - they get 100% of my attention.

So, anyway, I'm done waffling for now. I'll be back soon with more on what I think the impacts of poker are on my life. In the meantime I'll be grinding away at the online cash tables and trying to play a couple of live tournaments to get in the mood for Manchester.